Group C Euro 2012 General Discussion

[the bear]

Giuseppe Rossi out for six months after knee surgery: http://www.villarrealcf.es/es/notici...-meses-de-baja

balotelli to be included in squad?????????

[Metrostars]

Ireland to wear green shirts for Euro 2012 encounter with Spain in Gdansk

IRELAND will be wearing their green jerseys when they play Spain this June at the Euro 2012 in Poland.

It had been thought that they would wear their white away kit in the game at the impressive PGE Arena in Gdansk on 14 June.

The FAI confirmed to RTE, during a trip to the impressive PGE Arena in Gdansk, that Ireland would line out in their first-choice green kit, even though Spain are the designated ‘home’ team.

FIFA and UEFA had previously sought to avoid both teams playing in dark or light shirts, as it made it more difficult for people watching on black and white television to distinguish between teams.

However, Ireland will wear the away kit in the final group game against Italy in Poznan on Monday June 18.

Ireland have been wearing white when they have been knocked out of their past three tournaments in 1990 (Italy), 1994 (Netherlands) and 2002 (Spain).

http://www.independent.ie/sport/socc...k-3086537.html

Are they still going on about the Black & White Televisions? They went out in the early 70's yet FIFA and UEFA still accommodate for them. Are there really people out there still using B+W TV's?

[AlaskaFox]

Red v Green would be difficult for colourblind people to tell apart, never mind the black & white televisions.

[Stuttgart88]

"For those of you watching in black and white or who are colour blind, Spain is the team that can actually pass the ball."

[Lionel Ritchie]

Genuinely surprised by this. Thought the FAI would grab any and all possibilities to flog the white jersey having promised not to change the green one before the finals to shore up xmas sales. Article doesn't specify what colour Spain will wear. Only points out that they are the designated home team.

[Stuttgart88]

Kranjcar a doubt for Euros

[Metrostars]

So can we do a "Chelsea" on Spain?

[Stuttgart88]

Anything's possible. As I've oft said here - take your own chances and hope the opposition misses theirs and you win.

I actually think this Barcelona team looks tired and has done since before Christmas. The Madrid contingent on the other hand are probably pumped up, though how many key players are Spanish?

[Charlie Darwin]

Messi looked very tired. I still think Barcelona's main problem is that they lack a quality finisher outside of Messi. So many of their goals come from finding acres of space in front of goal and they tend to struggle against teams like Chelsea when the chances they create are less clear cut. It'll be interesting to see who is playing up front for Spain in June.

[paul_oshea]

Na, last night they werent even making those chances. They are too 1 dimensional as i mentioned, they dont have a plan B, and when it doesnt work like last night they are beatable. No over lapping on the wings, no cross diagonal balls, no high balls from defence out to the wings, not even croses really. No matter how good you are you wont always be able walk it into the goal.

That said they did look tired, iniest and xavi are getting a bit older, but it also goes back to the point i mentioned last week, had they a solid defence they would have been through last night, because now their attacking threat isnt covering the cracks of poor defence i.e. the attacking outlet isn't performing, and the backline just arent good enough. Very suspect at the back.

[Charlie Darwin]

Iniesta is 27!

I don't know what you mean about no crosses, no high balls out to the wings, etc. They have never played those. They didn't have a single player on the pitch over 6ft tall after Pique went off. They can't compete with Chelsea players in the air. They don't try to walk it in, they just try to create space, and unfortunately for them Chelsea were too good to allow them to.

[paul_oshea]

Ok fair enough i always thought iniesta was born the same year as me, which would make him a few years older Bar that point still the same

[geysir]

I'm not worried, the last we played Spain we had 55% possession and we had some dodgy/crocked players then.

Mick's master plan was the offside trap. I bet none have tried that in ages against Spain.

[paul_oshea]

They also had 10 men for 1/4(slight exaggeration) of the game, thats probably when we made up the 55%...and Camachos sweaty armpits.

[jbyrne]

They also had 10 men for 1/4(slight exaggeration) of the game, thats probably when we made up the 55%...and Camachos sweaty armpits.

wasnt it for about 15 mins?
played some great stuff that night and should have won

[DannyInvincible]

I think we played the whole of extra-time (a quarter of the game) with an extra man. One of their players suffered a bizarre testicular injury towards the end of the 90 minutes and they had no substitutions left, if I recall correctly.

Edit: Aye, it was David Albelda who had come on for Morientes in the 72nd minute. He limped off at some point around the end of the 90 and the beginning of extra-time with a twisted testicle. Mick McCarthy and the players hadn't actually realised they had an extra man.

[paul_oshea]

I said a quarter but i dont think it was the whole of extra time, plus i included injury time first and second half also for those pedants out there. I think it was after about 8 minutes he went off it wasn't straight away and thats why Mick the dope never noticed or so he said....

CD, to make a cross, do you have to hit the ball high? I think you are missing the overall point here.

Essentially its about creating space, whether on the overlap or not, but with the hope of pulling chelsea out of shape to create said space.

[geysir]

They also had 10 men for 1/4(slight exaggeration) of the game, thats probably when we made up the 55%...and Camachos sweaty armpits.

Even if the stats were 50/50 at the end of 90 minutes, that means we would have had to have 75% of ET, in order to make up the 55/45 split.
Very impressive stats indeed, considering over half our team were composed of the retiring, unattached, injured, reserve team players, Kilbane and Connolly.

[Junior]

Mick's master plan was the offside trap. I bet none have tried that in ages against Spain.

Thats right , forgot about that. Must have been about 7 or 8 offsidesin a short period of time, half of which the ball ended up in the back of our net. All very marginal but correct decisions if I recall.

A bit of POS exaggeration there but thats what it felt like at the time.

[youngirish]

So can we do a "Chelsea" on Spain?

We possibly could if Stephen Ward was playing for Chelsea and they brought on Paul McShane last night when their backs were to the wall.